Research

The Institute aims to harness electronic health records in their broadest sense for research to improve health and healthcare. We seek to create a more effective research e-infrastructure for healthcare data, making better use of electronic records and enabling more informed decision making by patients and professionals.

We will exploit synergies in health informatics across inter-related areas. Some investigators lead ‘translational research’ (discover new disease mechanisms, drug targets, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, trial new interventions, assess the quality and outcomes of care, challenge approaches to public health) that exploits features of linked electronic health records (scale, phenotypic resolution, efficiency). Some investigators come from a ‘big data’ tradition, carrying out research that allows the data to ‘speak for themselves.’ Some are focused on using applications of computing (including the Internet and mobile communication technologies) to improve and potentially transform the nature and delivery of healthcare, including improved systems and the relation between a citizen and their health.

We are delighted to announce our first Big Health Data Grand Challenge for collaborative research using linked electronic health record data from the CALIBER resource. Read more...

Our mission is to deliver high-quality, cutting-edge research linking electronic health data with other forms of research and routinely collected data. The Institute has a distinctive vocation in using various kinds of data, often very different from the kind of data in typical epidemiological studies or in clinical trials. These new kind of data bring new challenges for data collection, linkage, curating and analysis

Information governance within the Institute of Health Informatics and across the School of Life and Medical Sciences focuses on the protection of participants and guidance for researchers who use data for their work. It helps to promote safe working practices by means of proportionate guidance and requirements.